U.S Music star, Beyonce Knowles carried out a huge rally in Houston where the Democratic Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris told the crowd that American women now have fewer reproductive rights than their mothers and grandmothers.
Vice President, Harris also reminded them that Donald Trump has reversed 50 years of progress on women’s reproductive rights and, if elected, he will make sure abortion is banned across the United States.
The Democratic Party nominee said to a boisterous crowd packed into the city’s Shell Energy Stadium, that since the former president appointed the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe vs Wade, more than 20 states now had an abortion ban.
She said “For anyone watching from another state, if you think you are protected from Trump abortion bans because you live in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York, California or any state where voters or legislators have protected reproductive freedom, please know: No one is protected,” Harris said. “Because a Donald Trump national ban will outlaw abortion in every single state.”
Trump has often denied supporting a countrywide ban, but critics claim his opinion has shifted so frequently that his word cannot be trusted.
Harris was joined onstage by Houston-born artist Beyonce, her mother Tina Knowles, and former Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.
Beyonce said “Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big, loud, Texas welcome to the next president of the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris,” Beyonce said to the capacity crowd.
“I’m not here as a celebrity. I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother.”
She added: “A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided.”
Beyonce didn’t perform, but she has allowed Harris’s Democratic campaign to use her song, a cut from her landmark 2016 album, Lemonade, as its anthem.
The rally focused on reproductive rights and it heard testimonies from women who have nearly died from sepsis and other pregnancy complications because they were unable to get proper medical care, including women who never intended to end their pregnancies.
With the presidential election deadlocked, Harris is depending on abortion rights as a big motivator for voters, including Republican women, especially since Trump picked three Supreme Court judges who voted to abolish the constitutional right.
He has been unsure about how he will handle the matter if voters return him to the White House.
